In the Village Ciplakli, where credit card and cash are not valid, peasant women meet their daily needs with barter rather than money.
In the village Ciplakli, a district of Selim in Kars, peasant women do shopping and meet their daily needs with barter by giving goose, chicken and eggs just as they live the preceding period in the history when the money was not invented. While kids exchange eggs to get chips and chewing gums, women in the village meet daily needs of their home by exchanging goose, chicken and eggs. Stating that the villagers, who live on agriculture and animal husbandry,cannot find money all the time, they indicate that they have been meeting their daily needs by bartering for centuries.
Sevginaz Yılmaz, residing in the Village Ciplakli, went to grocery with the goose in her hand. In return for the stuff that she was going to get in the grocery, she drove a hard bargain with Dudan Gündaş, owner of the grocery. Sevginaz Yılmaz, selling her goose for 70 TL, said "I brought my goose to the grocery to do shopping" by stating her complaints about bovine animals which have less price to be sold to. Our stuff isn't worth anything, we take our cows to the animal shopping market and sell them for only 2000 TL. When citizens like me cannot get enough money, they will meet their needs by exchanging goose.
MY COMMENT:
This is not totally a formal text, but some sentences might be considered as formal since this text is based on news. It is very easy to understand the text and translate it except some points, which are dialects used by villagers. Some sentences are not correct in terms of structure. So, when I have translate it, I have neede to add some key items to give the message. Even though some sentences are quite long, I have tried to translate them as a whole in order to avoid loss in structure. This translarion has become both word-for-word and sense-for-sense to me.
2) BİZİM ENGLISH (the whole text):
Today, a student, who has been familiar with English over the years in one way or another, cannot put together two words related to his or her way of life, education, background or interest areas, which is a result of traditional education system prevalent in Turkey. It is such that even those English speakers, who complete their programs in a foreign language medium school; such as "Üsküdar İskelesi", "Babaili Yokuşu", do not know the words being a part of life in Turkey; such as, cob and prayer beads. Similarly, a student trying to learn English by the traditional education method is obliged to learn the words; such as, giraffe, pig or Big Ben Clock Tower, which they have never seen in his life before and which primarily never take a part in his life, rather than learning the words; such as, Faculty of Bussiness Administration, School administration, graduation diploma, wage, government office, tuition etc, which could be a particular concern to him. For instance, through secondary education among the words over 2000, which are intended for being taught in English classes taken at least 2 hours a week, a student often encounters the words which are unrelated to his own culture and life while the words, which are necessary to talk about his culture; such as, Republic of Turkey, moon and the star (symbols of the Turkish Flag), Ottoman Empire, Islam, are not encountered even once. As a result of that Turkish speaker of English, who meets a foreigner, has difficulty in expressing topics that are related to himself and that he can talk over. It is a moot point whether this lack in our foreign language education is one of the reasons why Turkey cannot introduce herself abroad for many a long year.
Above all, we find a solution to the problem of foreign language education, which prevents a student's alliniation and his joining the army of "foreign language retiree" wearily on increase , in use of teaching aids at the Institution of Turkish Education. Aside from English education aids based on the standards of USA and Britain, it is very natural that although they spend years in Turkey, experts from foreign countries do not know the needs of Turkish learners as much as Turkish teachers of English do. Because they cannot comprehend their way of life and understanding, because of the difference among Turkish learners' cultural background, it is hard to succeed in education aids prepared by these expert, which is inferred through lives of Turkish learners.
MY COMMENT:
How a challenging piece of work it is. This is the one, which takes hours to translate. Even though I revise so many times, I have still needed to check and find most accurate word usage and structure. The reason is that the text is very complicated and some senteces are at least 3 or 4-line long. It is a formal text and a reader needs such a register and vocabulary knowledge that she or he is able to understand it. So, we might say that it is also academicly written. There are some Turkish expressions, which are not in English. So, I give a brief definition of what it means in the context. Also, I have used dictionary so many times for choice of appropriate vocabulary items which I do not know at all. I realize that I mostly use word-for-word tranlation but at the same time I try to keep the balance between sense and word level of translation.
3)TED TALK ON CREATIVITY (the first three paragraphs):
Ben bir yazarım. Kitap yazmak benim işim, ancak bundan daha fazlası var elbette. Bu aynı zamanda hayatım boyunca sürecek tutkum ve arzumdur. Ve bu durumun değişeceğini sanmıyorum. Fakat, söylemem gerekir ki, hayatımda ve kariyerimde tüm ilişkilerimi yeniden düzenlemek zorunda bırakan, ilginç denilebilecek bir şey oldu. Bu ilginç şey en son yazdığım kitap olan ve anı kitabı denilen "Ye, Dua Et,Sev", ki daha önce yazdığım kitapların aksine, (bilinmeyen) bir nedenle ortaya çıktı ve uluslararası en çok satan, büyük bir sansasyon haline geldi. Bunun sonucu ise, artık nereye gidersem gideyim, insanların bana talihsizmişsim gibi davranmasıdır. Cidden talihsizmişim gibi... Endişeli şekilde yanıma gelip "Korkmuyor musun bundan daha iyisini yazamayacak olmaktan? Tüm hayatın boyunca yazmaya devam edecek olup, hiçbir zaman herkesin ilgilendiği bir kitap ortaya çıkaramayacak/yazamayacak olmaktan korkmuyor musun?" gibi.
Bilirsin ki bu güven vericidir. 20 yıldan daha fazla bir süre önce, hatırladığım bir olay dışında bu daha da kötü olabilirdi. Gençken, insanlara bir yazar olmak istediğimi söylediğim zaman, benzer şekilde, korku dolu tepkilerle karşılaştım. Ve insanlar "asla başarı elde edemeyecek olmaktan/olmandan korkmuyor musun? Reddedilme utancının seni öldürecek olmasından korkmuyor musun? Tüm hayatın boyunca bu alanda çalışacak olup, asla bir getirisinin olmayacağı bu alanın ve başarısızlığının külleri ile dolu hayal kırıklıklarının içinde ölecek olmaktan korkmuyor musun?" diyorlardı. Bilirsin, işte bunun gibi.
Biz yazarlar böyle kötü bir üne sahibimizdir, sadece yazarlar da değil, görünen o ki her türlü işle uğraşan yaratıcı insanların ciddi ruhsal bozukluğu olduğuna dair böyle kötü bir ün var ortada. Yalnızca yapmanız gereken şey, 20. Yüzyıl'da çok sayıda, ve sıklıkla kendi elleriyle, geç yaşta ölen olağanüstü derecede zeki insanların ölüm oranına bakmanızdır. Hatta gerçek anlamıyla intihar etmeyenler bile yetenekleri yüzünden perişan olmuşlardır. Ölmeden hemen önce yapılan röportajda, Norman Mailer "Her kitabım beni ölüme bir adım daha yaklaştırdı" dedi. İşiniz ile ilgili böyle sıradışı bir ifade kulanmak, bilirsin ki ilginçtir. Fakat birilerinin böyle söylediğini duyarken, bu tür şeyleri uzun süredir işittiğimiz, bir şekilde yaratıcılığın ve acı çekmenin birbirine bağlı olduğu ve sonunda sanatsallığın bütünüyle ızdıraba yol açtığı bu fikri tamamiyle benimsediğimiz ve kabul ettiğimiz için gözümüzü bile kırpmıyoruz.
MY COMMENT:
Comparing to the other texts, the most striking point is that this text is written in spoken language (I do not mean colloquial language), which means that there are some repeated words, some incomplete sentences and time fillers. So here it is very important to give the message of speaker to the audience. It is basically formal text including some informal expressions. It is not that hard to translate; however, sometimes I've had to spend so much time to translate some of the sentences, which are written in complex and long way. Sometimes I have tried to divide long sentences into two in order to give the message, but sometimes I have preferred using word-for-word translation in order to prevent too much loss in the context in terms of vocabulary items. Also, I have put an effort into being careful with the language use and accuracy, and appropriate vocabulary choice. I know that I have has some semantic shifts in this text; however, with the help of my drafts, I have tried to minimize them.
4) SAFTİRİK: Page 14-17
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Page 14:
I try to explain that matter of popularity to my friend, Rowley, but this goes in one ear and out the other with him.
Wednesday
Today, We had physical education class. As soon as I went out, the first thing I did was to run to the basketball court and to see if cheese was still there or not. Of course, it was there.
Page 15:
That piece of cheese has been on the asphalt since last spring. This might have dropped from someone's sandwich. Two days later, it started to rot and mould. Since then, nobody has been playing basketball in the court, where cheese is, even though this is the only court which has a hoop with a net.
Then one day, one guy, whose name is Darren Walsh, touched the cheese with his finger. By this way, the thing called "Cheese Touch" has started. It is like playing tag. The one, who touchs the cheese, has to live with this until he passes on to someone else.
The only way to protect yourself from "Cheese Touch" is to cross your fingers.
Page 16:
But, it is not easy remembering to make your fingers crossed all the time! So, after all, I glued my fingers to each other. I got a D in handwriting lesson, but anyway! It was worth it!
The kid named Abe Hall, became a victim of "Cheese Touch" last spring. The rest of the year nobody even got closer to him. This summer, Abe has moved to California. "Cheese Touch" has gone with him.
I hope that someone doesn't start the Cheese Touch again. Actually, I don't need this kind of stress in my life ever again.
Thursday
I have great difficulty in getting used to the fact that the summer is over and I have to wake up early to go to school!
My summer holiday didn't go well because of my brother, Rodrick.
Page 17:
A couple of days into summer vacation, in th middle of the night, Rodrick wake me up. He told me that I slept through the whole summer but fortunately I woke up on time for the first day of the school.
You might think that I was fool to be cheated for that one. But, Rodrick got dressed in his school clothes, he set the alarm clock just as if it was the morning. Also, he drew the curtains so that I couldn't see that it was still dark outside.
When Rodrick wake me up, I got dressed and went downstairs to have breakfast like I do every morning before I go to school.
MY COMMENT:
This book is written for young readers as well as young adults who may have great fun. Colloquial language dominates the book, which means this is basically written in an informal way. Here it is need to know about native and target language well in terms of idioms, proverbs, the names of echos and the commonly used words in daily life. Otherwise, translation becomes word for word and we cannot give intentions, emotions and messages to the readers. Therefore, as much as possible I have tried to do sense for sense translation. Of course, it has been limited by my knowledge of English and Turkish. Even though I have used structures accurately most of the time, I have had hard times to choose the appropriate vocabulary since I mostly tend to choose much more academic vocabulary items in translation. So, I have tried to revise my translation each time to make this translation closer to colloquial language used in the original book.
TRANSLATION TASKS:
1) ÇIPLAKLI KÖYÜ (the first three paragraphs):
In the Village Ciplakli, where credit card and cash are not valid, peasant women meet their daily needs with barter rather than money.
In the village Ciplakli, a district of Selim in Kars, peasant women do shopping and meet their daily needs with barter by giving goose, chicken and eggs just as they live the preceding period in the history when the money was not invented. While kids exchange eggs to get chips and chewing gums, women in the village meet daily needs of their home by exchanging goose, chicken and eggs. Stating that the villagers, who live on agriculture and animal husbandry,cannot find money all the time, they indicate that they have been meeting their daily needs by bartering for centuries.
Sevginaz Yılmaz, residing in the Village Ciplakli, went to grocery with the goose in her hand. In return for the stuff that she was going to get in the grocery, she drove a hard bargain with Dudan Gündaş, owner of the grocery. Sevginaz Yılmaz, selling her goose for 70 TL, said "I brought my goose to the grocery to do shopping" by stating her complaints about bovine animals which have less price to be sold to. Our stuff isn't worth anything, we take our cows to the animal shopping market and sell them for only 2000 TL. When citizens like me cannot get enough money, they will meet their needs by exchanging goose.
MY COMMENT:
This is not totally a formal text, but some sentences might be considered as formal since this text is based on news. It is very easy to understand the text and translate it except some points, which are dialects used by villagers. Some sentences are not correct in terms of structure. So, when I have translate it, I have neede to add some key items to give the message. Even though some sentences are quite long, I have tried to translate them as a whole in order to avoid loss in structure. This translarion has become both word-for-word and sense-for-sense to me.
2) BİZİM ENGLISH (the whole text):
Today, a student, who has been familiar with English over the years in one way or another, cannot put together two words related to his or her way of life, education, background or interest areas, which is a result of traditional education system prevalent in Turkey. It is such that even those English speakers, who complete their programs in a foreign language medium school; such as "Üsküdar İskelesi", "Babaili Yokuşu", do not know the words being a part of life in Turkey; such as, cob and prayer beads. Similarly, a student trying to learn English by the traditional education method is obliged to learn the words; such as, giraffe, pig or Big Ben Clock Tower, which they have never seen in his life before and which primarily never take a part in his life, rather than learning the words; such as, Faculty of Bussiness Administration, School administration, graduation diploma, wage, government office, tuition etc, which could be a particular concern to him. For instance, through secondary education among the words over 2000, which are intended for being taught in English classes taken at least 2 hours a week, a student often encounters the words which are unrelated to his own culture and life while the words, which are necessary to talk about his culture; such as, Republic of Turkey, moon and the star (symbols of the Turkish Flag), Ottoman Empire, Islam, are not encountered even once. As a result of that Turkish speaker of English, who meets a foreigner, has difficulty in expressing topics that are related to himself and that he can talk over. It is a moot point whether this lack in our foreign language education is one of the reasons why Turkey cannot introduce herself abroad for many a long year.
Above all, we find a solution to the problem of foreign language education, which prevents a student's alliniation and his joining the army of "foreign language retiree" wearily on increase , in use of teaching aids at the Institution of Turkish Education. Aside from English education aids based on the standards of USA and Britain, it is very natural that although they spend years in Turkey, experts from foreign countries do not know the needs of Turkish learners as much as Turkish teachers of English do. Because they cannot comprehend their way of life and understanding, because of the difference among Turkish learners' cultural background, it is hard to succeed in education aids prepared by these expert, which is inferred through lives of Turkish learners.
MY COMMENT:
How a challenging piece of work it is. This is the one, which takes hours to translate. Even though I revise so many times, I have still needed to check and find most accurate word usage and structure. The reason is that the text is very complicated and some senteces are at least 3 or 4-line long. It is a formal text and a reader needs such a register and vocabulary knowledge that she or he is able to understand it. So, we might say that it is also academicly written. There are some Turkish expressions, which are not in English. So, I give a brief definition of what it means in the context. Also, I have used dictionary so many times for choice of appropriate vocabulary items which I do not know at all. I realize that I mostly use word-for-word tranlation but at the same time I try to keep the balance between sense and word level of translation.
3)TED TALK ON CREATIVITY (the first three paragraphs):
Ben bir yazarım. Kitap yazmak benim işim, ancak bundan daha fazlası var elbette. Bu aynı zamanda hayatım boyunca sürecek tutkum ve arzumdur. Ve bu durumun değişeceğini sanmıyorum. Fakat, söylemem gerekir ki, hayatımda ve kariyerimde tüm ilişkilerimi yeniden düzenlemek zorunda bırakan, ilginç denilebilecek bir şey oldu. Bu ilginç şey en son yazdığım kitap olan ve anı kitabı denilen "Ye, Dua Et,Sev", ki daha önce yazdığım kitapların aksine, (bilinmeyen) bir nedenle ortaya çıktı ve uluslararası en çok satan, büyük bir sansasyon haline geldi. Bunun sonucu ise, artık nereye gidersem gideyim, insanların bana talihsizmişsim gibi davranmasıdır. Cidden talihsizmişim gibi... Endişeli şekilde yanıma gelip "Korkmuyor musun bundan daha iyisini yazamayacak olmaktan? Tüm hayatın boyunca yazmaya devam edecek olup, hiçbir zaman herkesin ilgilendiği bir kitap ortaya çıkaramayacak/yazamayacak olmaktan korkmuyor musun?" gibi.
Bilirsin ki bu güven vericidir. 20 yıldan daha fazla bir süre önce, hatırladığım bir olay dışında bu daha da kötü olabilirdi. Gençken, insanlara bir yazar olmak istediğimi söylediğim zaman, benzer şekilde, korku dolu tepkilerle karşılaştım. Ve insanlar "asla başarı elde edemeyecek olmaktan/olmandan korkmuyor musun? Reddedilme utancının seni öldürecek olmasından korkmuyor musun? Tüm hayatın boyunca bu alanda çalışacak olup, asla bir getirisinin olmayacağı bu alanın ve başarısızlığının külleri ile dolu hayal kırıklıklarının içinde ölecek olmaktan korkmuyor musun?" diyorlardı. Bilirsin, işte bunun gibi.
Biz yazarlar böyle kötü bir üne sahibimizdir, sadece yazarlar da değil, görünen o ki her türlü işle uğraşan yaratıcı insanların ciddi ruhsal bozukluğu olduğuna dair böyle kötü bir ün var ortada. Yalnızca yapmanız gereken şey, 20. Yüzyıl'da çok sayıda, ve sıklıkla kendi elleriyle, geç yaşta ölen olağanüstü derecede zeki insanların ölüm oranına bakmanızdır. Hatta gerçek anlamıyla intihar etmeyenler bile yetenekleri yüzünden perişan olmuşlardır. Ölmeden hemen önce yapılan röportajda, Norman Mailer "Her kitabım beni ölüme bir adım daha yaklaştırdı" dedi. İşiniz ile ilgili böyle sıradışı bir ifade kulanmak, bilirsin ki ilginçtir. Fakat birilerinin böyle söylediğini duyarken, bu tür şeyleri uzun süredir işittiğimiz, bir şekilde yaratıcılığın ve acı çekmenin birbirine bağlı olduğu ve sonunda sanatsallığın bütünüyle ızdıraba yol açtığı bu fikri tamamiyle benimsediğimiz ve kabul ettiğimiz için gözümüzü bile kırpmıyoruz.
MY COMMENT:
Comparing to the other texts, the most striking point is that this text is written in spoken language (I do not mean colloquial language), which means that there are some repeated words, some incomplete sentences and time fillers. So here it is very important to give the message of speaker to the audience. It is basically formal text including some informal expressions. It is not that hard to translate; however, sometimes I've had to spend so much time to translate some of the sentences, which are written in complex and long way. Sometimes I have tried to divide long sentences into two in order to give the message, but sometimes I have preferred using word-for-word translation in order to prevent too much loss in the context in terms of vocabulary items. Also, I have put an effort into being careful with the language use and accuracy, and appropriate vocabulary choice. I know that I have has some semantic shifts in this text; however, with the help of my drafts, I have tried to minimize them.
4) SAFTİRİK: Page 14-17
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Page 14:
I try to explain that matter of popularity to my friend, Rowley, but this goes in one ear and out the other with him.
Wednesday
Today, We had physical education class. As soon as I went out, the first thing I did was to run to the basketball court and to see if cheese was still there or not. Of course, it was there.
Page 15:
That piece of cheese has been on the asphalt since last spring. This might have dropped from someone's sandwich. Two days later, it started to rot and mould. Since then, nobody has been playing basketball in the court, where cheese is, even though this is the only court which has a hoop with a net.
Then one day, one guy, whose name is Darren Walsh, touched the cheese with his finger. By this way, the thing called "Cheese Touch" has started. It is like playing tag. The one, who touchs the cheese, has to live with this until he passes on to someone else.
The only way to protect yourself from "Cheese Touch" is to cross your fingers.
Page 16:
But, it is not easy remembering to make your fingers crossed all the time! So, after all, I glued my fingers to each other. I got a D in handwriting lesson, but anyway! It was worth it!
The kid named Abe Hall, became a victim of "Cheese Touch" last spring. The rest of the year nobody even got closer to him. This summer, Abe has moved to California. "Cheese Touch" has gone with him.
I hope that someone doesn't start the Cheese Touch again. Actually, I don't need this kind of stress in my life ever again.
Thursday
I have great difficulty in getting used to the fact that the summer is over and I have to wake up early to go to school!
My summer holiday didn't go well because of my brother, Rodrick.
Page 17:
A couple of days into summer vacation, in th middle of the night, Rodrick wake me up. He told me that I slept through the whole summer but fortunately I woke up on time for the first day of the school.
You might think that I was fool to be cheated for that one. But, Rodrick got dressed in his school clothes, he set the alarm clock just as if it was the morning. Also, he drew the curtains so that I couldn't see that it was still dark outside.
When Rodrick wake me up, I got dressed and went downstairs to have breakfast like I do every morning before I go to school.
MY COMMENT:
This book is written for young readers as well as young adults who may have great fun. Colloquial language dominates the book, which means this is basically written in an informal way. Here it is need to know about native and target language well in terms of idioms, proverbs, the names of echos and the commonly used words in daily life. Otherwise, translation becomes word for word and we cannot give intentions, emotions and messages to the readers. Therefore, as much as possible I have tried to do sense for sense translation. Of course, it has been limited by my knowledge of English and Turkish. Even though I have used structures accurately most of the time, I have had hard times to choose the appropriate vocabulary since I mostly tend to choose much more academic vocabulary items in translation. So, I have tried to revise my translation each time to make this translation closer to colloquial language used in the original book.